Nottinghamshire 358 & 167/0 v Derbyshire 260 & 262 (County Championship Division Two)
19.05.22-22.05.22
*four day match Nottinghamshire win by 10 wickets
Nottinghamshire romped to an easy ten wicket victory over their Midlands rivals Derbyshire in the latest round of Division Two County Championship matches. Chasing 165 to win on the final day they easily reached their target with two sessions to spare. They earned 23 points from the game but were unable to go top of the table due to leaders Middlesex also having an easy win over Durham at Lord’s.
Derbyshire batted first on the opening day after losing the toss and were soon in trouble at 41 for 3 as the returning South African paceman Dane Paterson took two wickets in two balls. Brooke Guest (51), who took only 68 balls to reach 50, and Leus du Plooy (57), steadied the ship for the visitors, but from 181-4 they slumped to 260 all out against an all ‘international’ front attack as Stuart Broad and James Pattinson took two wickets apiece to add to Paterson’s impressive 3-36 from 16.3 overs. Nottinghamshire safely closed on 22-0.
Ben Slater got the Notts innings off to a flyer on the second day with 38 off 44 balls (8 fours), before the in-form Ben Duckett struck his sixth championship fifty in nine innings for the season, in making a superb 86 off 114 balls, laden with 12 boundaries. Adding 84 with Joe Clarke (37), for the third wicket, Nottinghamshire eventually progressed from 204-3 to a promising 334-7 by the close of play. This gave them a lead of 74 runs. Liam Patterson-White (34 not out), Lyndon James (34), Steven Mullaney (27 off 33), and Tom Moores (40 off 79), all contributed to a steady effort.
Notts were bowled out for 358 early next day, giving them a fine lead of 98 runs. Nick Potts (4-50), was the pick of the Derbyshire bowlers. Pakistani opener Shan Masood missed the chance to score a rare 1000 runs in May when he was leg-before third ball to Broad, and with Paterson again picking up two wickets, the visitors were in trouble. Wayne Madsen led a mini fightback, striking nine fours in his 52 off 75 balls, but at 161-7, Nottinghamshire looked set for an easy victory.
However, Alex Hughes and number nine batsman Liam Hurt put on 90 for the eighth wicket in 23 overs, before Hurt was dismissed for a well-made 49 off 64 balls. Hughes also fell for 49, bowled by Pattinson, as Derbyshire were all out just before the close for 262. The pacemen again excelled for Notts with Paterson (again!), with 3-35 in 21, and Pattinson (3-59), doing the main damage. Needing 165 to win and possibly go top of the table, Notts closed on 3-0 after two overs.
The final day saw no hiccups for the home county as openers Ben Slater (64 not out), and England hopeful Haseeb Hameed (93 not out off 96 balls), comfortably reached the winning mark in only 36.3 overs. Slater took 108 balls to collect his second half-century of the season, whilst Hameed showed more aggression, plundering eight fours in his fifty off 61 balls, before ending with 12 fours and two sixes in his unbeaten knock. The opening session was extended as Notts neared their target to avoid the necessity of having a lunch break.
Meanwhile, at Lord’s, Middlesex also completed a straight forward victory, defeating the Ben Stokes-inspired team of Durham by six wickets. The visitors had totalled a gallant 350 in their first innings, before the Londoners replied with 422. A second ball dismissal of the in-form Stokes saw Durham slump to 188 in their second knock. Chasing 117 to win in 44 overs, captain Peter Handscomb easily saw them to the target without any great alarms with an unbeaten 39 off 50 balls. The Middlesex heroes were paceman Toby Roland-Jones who captured 6-35 in the second innings for ten wickets in the match, and wicket-keeper John Simpson who equalled his own record of nine catches at the home of cricket.
Middlesex still top the table with 116 points from six games, while Nottinghamshire remain in second place with 107 from the same number of matches.
The Nottinghamshire Second XI were also in action recently winning the first three games of their twenty20 group campaign. Against Derbyshire, they won by 22 runs after the visitors failed to reach a rain reduced target of 136 in 18 overs. Nottinghamshire were 37-3 in the fourth over before Dan Christian (45 off 45), and Samit Patel (34 from 27), saw the Outlaws reach 147-8 in their allotted overs. Derbyshire then raced to 48-0 in the fifth over, before four wickets in 16 balls saw them slide to 105-7 in the 16th over. Jake Ball and Patel ended up with three wickets apiece.
Then followed two consecutive victories over Durham. The first game saw Notts win by 24 runs after totalling just 130-7, with Matthew Montgomery capturing three wickets, and then romped to an easy eight wicket win in the second game with 6.2 overs to spare, after chasing 135 runs to win, with Sol Budinger (35), Dane Schadendorf (51*), and Samit Patel (36*), doing the bulk of the scoring.
Nottinghamshire XI: Slater, Hameed, Duckett, Clarke, James, Mullaney (c), Moores, Patterson-White, Pattinson, Broad, Paterson.
Derbyshire XI: Masood, Godleman (c), Guest, Madsen, du Plooy, Reece, Hughes, Thomson, Hurt, Potts, Conners.
Venue: Trent Bridge, Nottingham
*Article provided by Hitesh Darji (Cricket Correspondent)
*Main image @TrentBridge Haseeb Hameed was in fine form with a second innings 93 not out.
